CSUDH Men's Basketball Weekly
January 2, 2007

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On Tap This Week: The Toros begin the new year with two key road CCAA contests. After ending 2006 with two wins, CSUDH faces the defending CCAA Champions in Sonoma State on Thursday, and Humboldt State two days later, the coaches’ preseason favorite to dethrone SSU.

Last Two Weeks’ Recap: The Toros closed 2006 with two wins, taking a 60-51 decision over UC San Diego, and following that effort with a come-from-behind victory at Grand Canyon eight days later to give CSUDH 5-straight wins, the longest run since the 1995-96 season in which CSUDH claimed 8-straight wins, after beginning the season with three-straight losses.

Against UC San Diego, junior Jamaal Barnes tallied a double-double of 13 boards and 10 points as the Toros outscored the Tritons 35-19 in a dominant second half to take a 60-51 win. After exploding for 7-of-10 3-pointers in the first half, UCSD hit just one in 10 attempts after intermission, while Carlos Rivers notched two 3-pointers in the half for the Toros. Additionally, CSUDH hit a solid 72.7% of their foul shots, including 13-of-17 in the second half, and out-rebounded UCSD 33-26. Mike Steed, playing in only his second game, led the Toros with 12 points while Rivers added 11, including 5-of-6 from the charity stripe.

Eight days later at Grand Canyon, Steed was at it again, connecting for the game-winner with 10 seconds left in overtime as CSUDH erased a 9-point halftime deficit to come away with the 70-69 win. Shamont Brown kept the Toros within striking distance in the first half, and Steed and Gabe Bernard propelled CSUDH to the win after intermission. Free throw shooting, an achilles heel in the early going, was the key as the Toros sank all 12 of their attempts in securing the road win. Brown led the Toros with 17 points, while Rivers chipped in 13 in the win.

Streaking in December: The Toros picked up their collective play last month in posting a 5-1 record, with all five wins coming in their last five games. After shooting 39% and 37% in their first two games to begin the season against two top-5 ranked teams, CSUDH has responded with five of six games shooting over 50% from the field.

In the close loss against Cal State Stanislaus on December 1, the Toros nailed 51% of their shots, and followed that effort with four more games in which they have connected on at least half their shot attempts from the floor. CSUDH drained 51% from the floor against Chico State (Dec. 2), 51% against Hawai’i Hilo (Dec. 7), 53% against The Master’s College (Dec. 16) and 50% against UC San Diego (Dec. 20) in winning four games, while scraping out a 70-69 overtime win against the ‘Lopes last Thursday for their fifth-straight.

What Brown Continues to Do For You: Senior leader Shamont Brown picked up his game in December, and the Toros have followed suit. In a close loss to Cal State Stanislaus on December 1, Brown nailed 6-for-11 shots from the field en route to scoring 12 points. In CSUDH’s first win of the year the next night against Chico State, Brown was even better as he drained 4-of-6 shots and hit 9-of-12 free throws in the 68-60 win while in the blowout win against Hawai’i-Hilo, the New York native was nearly flawless, hitting 9-of-11 shots for a game-high 18 points as CSUDH walloped UHH, 83-51. Then, against Master’s, Brown nailed 7-of-12 shots for 18 points, and hit 4-of-7 for 10 points against UCSD. Fittingly, Brown against paced the Toros with 17 points, despite a sub-par 5-for-13 performance against a stingy Grand Canyon defense.

On the year, Brown is connecting for 57% of his shots from the field, and a solid 77% from the charity stripe while averaging 13.9 points per game on the year.

Mr. Consistency: Senior Carlos Rivers has quietly been Mr. Consistency thus far, tallying double-figure scoring in seven of CSUDH’s eight games, and nine points in the other contest. Rivers scored 11 points in the first two games of the year, and followed those efforts with 15-point and 13-point outbursts in the first CCAA weekend to kick off December. After his 9-point performance against University of Hawai’i at Hilo, Rivers drained 7-of-11 shots from the field last Saturday en route to 16 points in the win over The Master’s College, and went for 11 and 13 in CSUDH’s last two wins to close out the 2006 calendar year.

Additionally, Rivers is shooting 83% from the charity stripe for the Toros, and has drained 43% from behind the arc (16-for-37).

A Marked Improvement: After draining just over 60% of their free throws over their first six games, the Toros’ hard work in practice at the charity stripe has paid huge dividends in their last two games as CSUDH has converted an astounding 83.3% of their shots from the line, bringing their season average up to 66.4% on the year.

While still trailing their opponents’ collective of 78.2% from the foul stripe, CSUDH connected for 13-of-18 free throws in the 84-76 win over The Master’s College (12/16), and followed that performance with a 16-for-22 outing in the victory over UC San Diego (12/20). In a fitting end to the free throw parade for 2006, the Toros were a perfect 12-for-12 at Grand Canyon (12/28), needing each and every one of those points in the 70-69 overtime win.

A Tale of Two Halves (and an Overtime): Seniors Shamont Brown and Gabe Bernard took turns leading the Toros to victory last Thursday as the duo combined for 28 of CSUDH’s 70 points, while junior Mike Steed provided balanced scoring in both halves as well as in overtime.

Brown kept the Toros in the game in the first half with 12 points, including a perfect 6-for-6 from the foul stripe, while Bernard stepped up his game after the break, scoring all 11 of his points, including 3-of-4 from behind the 3-point line. Steed, meanwhile, notched 6 points in the first half, 4 in the second, and the final basket of the extra session as CSUDH overcame a 9-point halftime deficit in the 1-point overtime win.

Toros Amongst the CCAA’s Best...: Here’s how the Toros compare with the CCAA’s with games played through December 22:

• Blocks - Trevon Bryant (1st, 1.7 bpg), Demetrius Love (T7th, 0.9 bpg), Jamaal Barnes (T12th, 0.6 bpg), Gabe Bernard (T12th, 0.6 bpg);
• Assist/Turnover Ratio - Jonathan Toliver (1st, 3.83), Carlos Rivers (17th, 1.15)
• FG% - Shamont Brown (2nd, 61%), Carlos Rivers (18th, 48%)
• 3-Pt. FG% - Jonathan Toliver (4th, 45%)
• Rebounds - Jamaal Barnes (7th, 6.6 rpg), Shamont Brown (15th, 5.3 rpg)
• 3-Pt. FG Made - Jonathan Toliver (T6th, 2.14), Carlos Rivers (T11th, 1.86)
• Scoring - Shamont Brown (13th, 13.4 ppg)
• Assists - Jonathan Toliver (T14th, 3.3 apg), Carlos Rivers (T14th, 3.3 apg).

The Bryant Watch: After destroying the CSUDH single-single mark with 52 blocked shots last season and needing just 44 to establish himself as the Toros’ all-time career blocked shot leader entering the season, senior Trevon Bryant has collected 12 blocks in the Toros first eight games, bringing him to within 32 for the record.

Last season, Bryant tallied his 38th block on February 24, against Cal State San Bernardino, surpassing the previous mark of 37 blocks set by former Toro great Anthony Blackman during the 1988-99 campaign.

Around the CCAA Conference: Here’s a look at the rest of the conference schedule for the first week of 2007 :January 4 -UC San Diego @ Humboldt State, Cal State Bakersfield @ Cal State Stanislaus; January 5 - Cal State San Bernardino @ Cal State Monterey Bay, Cal Poly Pomona @ San Francisco State, Cal State L.A. @ Chico State; January 6 - Cal State L.A. @ Cal State Stanislaus, UC San Diego @ Sonoma State, Cal Poly Pomona @ Cal State Monterey Bay, Cal State San Bernardino @ San Francisco State, Cal State Bakersfield @ Chico State.

Craig on the Mic: The voice of the Toros online, veteran broadcaster Craig Dunkin will web cast two games to begin 2007 in the January 19 game against Cal Poly Pomona, and the February 9 contest against Humboldt State. Tune in at www.TorosLive.com for all the play-by-play action.

What the Coaches Said: In a preseason poll conducted by the CCAA coaches, Cal State Dominguez Hills was predicted to finish 7th in the highly-competitive conference. CCAA-newcomer Humboldt State, which was tabbed by Street & Smith as No. 6 in its preseason poll but fell in its first two CCAA contests two weekends ago, was given 9 first-place votes to top the conference list, and was followed by Cal Poly Pomona, Cal State Bakersfield and Sonoma State, which received 1 first-place nod apiece.

Cal State San Bernardino and UC San Diego preceded the Toros in 5th and 6th, respectively, while Cal State Stanislaus, Chico State, Cal State L.A., San Francisco State and Cal State Monterey Bay rounded out the 12 CCAA schools.

The Time is Now: From the 2006-07 season preview: The 2006-07 Cal State Dominguez Hills men’s basketball team is ready. Ready with eight returning players on a team that improved by two wins in conference and four overall after welcoming 10 newcomers and a coach in just his second year with last season’s squad. Ready after winning its last two regular season games of the year. And ready after five of its losses on the year were by three points or less.

In 2005-06, juniors Carlos Rivers and Shamont Brown, who was named to the 2nd-team All-CCAA, led the Toro offense, averaging 13.4 and 12.0 points per game, respectively, while fellow junior transfer Trevon Bryant anchored a revamped defense that saw him establish the CSUDH record for blocks in a single-season with 52, with his 2.36 blocks per game average placing him 15th in the NCAA, giving head coach Damaine Powell (right) ample reason to smile as the season kicks off this week at the SPU Thanksgiving Classic.

“For the first time since I’ve been here, I know my personnel,” says Powell confidently. “We kind of got on a roll toward the end but by that time, the season was over. But we felt good about ourselves. Now, we’ve got some talent and experience, and we’re playing to that. We have the potential to have a breakthrough year.”